Mirror with vintage doilies

I've been working on redoing my workspace,

painting walls, new storage units, etc 

but with Christmas coming, 

I have had very little time for crafts.

But I did manage to make this quick

project for my wall.

 

This is made from an inexpensive Ikea

mirror and some vintage doilies I

bought at a garage sale ages ago.

Day 4: framing up vintage children illustration

Sorry for the poor lighting (again)
but I wanted to show it in my room.

I have a couple of rooms in my house

that are bare of any artwork.

So today I'm framing a page from a 

vintage children's book

that will go in my bedroom.

I chose an old Italian book 

called Cappuccetto Rosso.

Isn't the illustration delightful!

Il Lupo, con un balzo divoro

Cappuccetto Rosso.

The wolf, with a leap, devoured

Red Riding Hood.

 As you can see the picture

covered two pages so  I scanned
it into Paint and blended

the colours over the centre fold.

The plastic frame was simply given a 
lick of light grey paint.

I'm totally happy with the 

result and I'm looking forward

to finishing more of these.

-----------------------------

Todays's supplies were all from 

my stash :o)

Have you seen a teacosy like this before?

DSC02291
Originally uploaded by sukigirl74

Isn't this a beautiful tea cosy!
I really wish that I could take credit
for making it .
I bought it at a small garage sale put on
by a group of lovely older Polish women.
I'd be curious to know how old
it is and if there is a pattern for it
floating out there somewhere.

It is crocheted with loops pulled through
and as you can see,
is made with the most glorious colours!
The flowers are simply made
from loops of yarn tied in the middle
and are laid on a bed of pale green yarn.

If you've seen one like this
I'd love to hear about it.

Babette crochet afghan

I've always wanted to make a babette
afghan and decided this would be the
winter to start on it.
But first I looked
through my old craft books
to see some of the 70's versions
of the granny afghan.
This lovely example is from BHG
Crocheting and Knitting 1978



Not quite an afghan but still a
wonderful example of grannys
in this pillow from
McCall's Crochet Treasury 1977


Here is a link to some modern afghans
known as babettes.

It may take me a while to pick
out my colours and also decide
if I will follow the babette pattern or
just do my own thing.
But it is a project which I'm
really looking forward
to starting.

Granny Square jacket

Here's today's vintage image:

It is from a 1980 magazine called
Christmas Ideas
put out by
Better Homes and Gardens Creative Ideas
It is made with 42 granny squares (2 1/2 in)
for the back, 20 for each front,
and 30 for each sleeve,with simple edgings added for
the colour, cuffs and bottom.

Lovely embroidered owls from vintage book

I'm lucky to be able to find a lot
of vintage craft books from our 
library and from second hand stores,
mostly from the 70's and 80's.

This book I own, 
it's called Needleplay by Erica Wilson
printed in 1975.
Most are made using rug yarn.
I'm in love with the owl
at the bottom left!
But also look at those flowers!

Patchwork Comforter

[Originally uploaded by
Heath & the B.L.T boys]

I came across this on flickr
and it brought a flood of memories back to me!


It is from the Better Homes & Gardens Patchwork & Quilting Book of 1977.
I'm pretty sure my sister and I saw this article years earlier published

in their magazine and as soon as we
saw it we knew we had to make one for mum.

Ours was made from crazy shades of green
and,week after week, we secretly worked on it
at my sister's apartment
which was above a small grocery store.

I'm surprised that we even finished ours on time

because of course it took so much longer
than we ever expected but we stuck with it
until it was finished.
I'm not sure how much my mum actually liked the
look of the comforter itself but we thought it
was the coolest thing we had ever done!

I have no idea what happened to it,
I don't even have a picture of it
but the memory of making it with my
sister still remains clear!

vintage embroidery

I picked these up at a thrift shop for a buck a piece.
I hesitated buying these because I wasn't sure if
I really liked them.
Well they have definitely grown on me
and for now they will hang in my workspace but
I would eventually like to use them as elements
in a larger piece...maybe tone down
the orange a wee bit?
I really love the embroidery on the dresses!